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New York, NY.  Lehendakari Patxi Lopez has already completed half of his week-long trade mission on East Coast of the US.  The visit began last Friday in Dallas, Texas, where Lopez met with energy companies and attended a reception at the Petroleum Club.  On Saturday the President was in New York where he visited the euskal etxea and met with representatives of the local Basque community.  New York’s Euzko Etxea is the oldest Basque club in the US and will celebrate its centennial in 2013. 

Lopez accompanied by EITB’s director, Alberto Surio, presented Canal Vasco while at the Basque club of New York.  Canal Vasco is ETB’s international signal that can now be seen in the US and Canada thanks to the Galaxy 23 Satellite.  In his speech the Lehendakari stated that the channel will become a “communication tool” that will facilitate “bringing the Basque Country to the world and the world to Euskadi.”

On Sunday, Lopez visited New York’s Ground Zero, where he honored the victims of the attacks on the twin towers. On this occasion, Lopez called for "respect" for the International Conference on peace in Donostia, and called "ETA and its supporters to take this opportunity to put an end to its activities.” Yesterday, among other acts, the Lehendakari attended the signing of a cooperation agreement between the Basque Culinary Center and the Culinary Institute of America.

[Patxi Lopez during his visit to Ground Zero in New York (photo Irekia)]

Part two of the trip

Today the Basque delegation will be in Boston, where the President will meet with the Governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick. Later, Lopez will visit the Basque company Progenika’s new laboratories and will then participate in a seminar on “clusters” at Harvard University.

Tomorrow he will travel to Washington, where, among other things, he will lecture at Johns Hopkins University. Day after tomorrow the delegation will hold an event for the promotion of Basque tourism and the food industry in New York, and finally, López will visit the Gamesa plant on Thursday in Trenton.